There was a buzzing above.
Not loud, but constant like the faint hum of electricity running through the walls. A soft white light glowed overhead, cool and artificial, spreading evenly across the ceiling without casting any shadows. The air smelled sterile. Too clean. Too controlled.
Saurai opened his eyes.
For a moment, everything was blurry just shapes and sound and brightness. He blinked a few times, his vision slowly sharpening into details.
Rows of desks. Screens embedded in the walls. A woman pacing in front of a massive digital board. Forty or so students, dressed in dull blue and grey uniforms, either scribbling in notebooks or staring ahead blankly.
A classroom?
His heart thudded once. Then again.
He didn't recognize this place.
He sat at the far end of the room, in the last row, slouched in a chair that felt molded to his back. A screen blinked softly on his desk, displaying a few lines of text:
"Module: Environmental Agriculture"
Topic: Growth Strategies in Closed-System Cultivation"
A woman's voice cut through the static of his mind.
"Saurai lian?"
He looked up.
The teacher stood at the front, arms folded, eyebrows raised. Her hair was jet black, sleek, and tied into a no-nonsense bun. She was beautiful but not warm. Polished features. Sharp jawline. Uniform crisp as folded steel.
"If you're awake now, Mr. Lian, perhaps you'd like to answer the question."
Saurai opened his mouth. No sound came.
He stared back at her, the name still echoing in his ears.
Saurai Lian?
She sighed. "I asked: Which nutrient element is the most limited in closed-loop cultivation environments, and why?"
Saurai blinked. For some reason, the answer came to him.
"Phosphorus," he said, his voice dry and uncertain. "It binds to surface particles and becomes insoluble over time. Harder to recycle than nitrogen."
The class went silent.
The teacher tilted her head slightly, her face unreadable. Then she turned back to the board and continued without a word.
Saurai exhaled. He had no idea where that answer came from but it felt… instinctive.
He looked around slowly.
This wasn't any school he remembered. The furniture, the lighting, the air quality everything felt off. The windows weren't windows; they were digital panels. Glowing, but blank. There was no sky outside. No sunlight. Just a quiet white room, sealed from the world.
The students around him looked normal, but unfamiliar. Too clean. Too quiet.
Was this a dream?
He looked down at his hands. Smaller than they should be. Slimmer. Softer. He turned his palm over once, twice. His pulse quickened.
This isn't my body.
He could remember… something. No, someone.
A man.
A lab. Books. Fields of grain. Dry heat. The smell of old paper and fertilizer. Scientific journals spread across a desk. He had been
An agricultural scientist.
A researcher. A quiet one. Someone who stayed out of the spotlight. Someone who-
He pressed his hands to his head.
His name… wasn't Saurai.
This wasn't his past.
"Hey. You okay?" a voice whispered beside him.
Saurai turned his head slightly. A round-faced boy was slumped next to him, arms crossed on the desk, chin half-resting on his forearm.
His eyes were wide and curious. Friendly, even.
"You look like you just had a seizure or something."
Saurai tried to smile. "No, I… I'm fine."
"You sure?" The boy leaned closer and whispered, "You usually just nod and pretend you're invisible. That was kinda heroic, speaking up like that."
Saurai stared.
"I'm Bryn," the boy added. "Just in case you've got, like, memory loss or something. Which would be hilarious. And he laughed at his own joke"
Saurai nodded slowly. He filed the name away. Bryn. It suited the boy's gentle, sleepy expression.
He looked around again. Every surface of the room seemed to glow faintly. The hum in the walls hadn't stopped. The floor didn't vibrate or shake so he wasn't in a vehicle. But somehow, the whole place felt... enclosed. Isolated. There were no windows, no air vents, no natural light.
"Where am I?" Saurai whispered to himself.
"What?" Bryn looked over.
"Nothing."
He closed his eyes briefly. This wasn't his world. It wasn't a dream. And it wasn't the past. If anything, it felt like…
Another civilization.
But how? Why? Had he died?
He couldn't remember.
"Saurai?" Bryn nudged him again.
Saurai blinked.
"What?"
"You're staring into space again."
Saurai looked back to the front. The teacher was still speaking, though he couldn't focus on her words anymore. She was listing something about nutrient cycles, vertical growth trays, and water reclamation tanks.
He remembered those things. Not from this life. From before.
He wasn't just someone named Saurai. He was someone else.his name was Dr. Ved Someone who knew exactly how crops behaved in artificial conditions. Someone who'd published papers on the sustainability of hydroponics in desert zones.
But he was also… a student now. A boy.
A stranger in his own skin.
His name was Saurai. And yet it wasn't.
And something told him this wasn't the last time he'd be answering questions he shouldn't know the answers to.